The present invention is related generally to radio transceivers and more particularly to such transceivers that are voice-controlled.
Radio transceivers capable of receiving and transmitting radio messages are well known in the prior art. The typical prior art radio transceiver requires several manual operations in order to properly control the operating conditions of the transceiver. Such manual operations include turning the transceiver on and off, switching the transceiver from a transmit to a receive mode, changing the operating frequency of the transceiver, etc. For a large part of the public these manual operations pose no problem. However, for a significant portion of the population such as police or other emergency personnel or the handicapped, performance of these manual operations may be inconvenient or even impossible. For this reason, there is a need to provide a voice-controlled radio transceiver capable of performing all of the necessary manual operations in response to voice commands. The present invention is for a radio transceiver capable of satisfying this need.
Radio transceivers partially responsive to voice commands are known in the prior art. One manual operation which has already been replaced by a voice-controlled operation is the switching of the transceiver between the transmit and the receive modes. See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,169,221 to A. J. Franchi; 4,103,105 to Akiyama et al; 4,166,978 to White; and 4,178,548 to Thompson.
A voice-responsive mobile status unit is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Application Ser. No. 337,762 filed Jan. 7, 1982. The mobile status unit disclosed therein is responsive to predetermined spoken phrases which are identified and represented as a digital code before being transmitted to a base station transceiver or the like so as to more quickly and accurately transmit status information to a central station.
Voice-control of machines other than radio transceivers is also known. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,266 to Lasar, a device for controlling machines by voice is disclosed which responds to a plurality of predetermined musical tones in a sequence to generate a digital control output signal. In an article entitled "Experimental Telephone Lets Disabled Dial By Voice," Bell Lab (USA) Vol. 51, No. 9, an experimental telephone for physically handicapped people unable to hold a telephone handset or dial a conventional phone is described. The telephone will respond to any sound, even whistling, blowing, or tapping, above a certain threshhold. The user must then turn on the phone's circuitry by entering an access code before entering the phone number.
In an article entitled "Voice Data Entry Computer Terminal Allows User to Select 900-Word Vocabulary" found in Digital Technology Review (USA) Vol. 17, No. 6, an intelligent voice terminal enables operators to enter data directly into a computer using familiar English language by speaking into a microphone or telephone handset. The system may be expanded to provide audio response through a voice synthesizer unit. The heart of the intelligent voice terminal is an acoustic pattern classifier that produces a digital code in response to a received utterance. An action structure associating an appropriate system action with each command that is recognized is also available. Actions may range from simply outputting a code associated with a recognized word to executing a complex computer program that is a function of several previously input commands. Another article discussing the voice-input of data is found in EDN, May 27, 1981, pages 101-113 by Edward R. Teja.